Lullabye

EFL Standings for 2016

Haviland:  DNP, (-4) – (-1). (.077, . 226, .231; 1.3 ip, 0 er)  Uncharacteristic Dragon inoffensiveness makes me wonder if they have gone back to sleep. In this cooler weather, it must be hard for a reptile to steer clear of slumber.  Relax.  Trouble is far off and running out of time.  You’ll be fine.

Old Detroit: L, 2 – 4.  (.243, .275, .324; no pitching).   The W’s traded in their last extra game token and got the 0.2 games it was worth.  So in real terms nothing changed.   Except this one little thing: Crooked AJ Preller finally promoted his best catcher, Austin Hedges.  So the W’s will actually have a live catcher for once. Hedges went 1 for 3 in his 2016 debut.

Portland:  W, 4 – 3.  (.206, .308, .412;  1.3 ip, 0 er)  It was 100 points distant from an Edgar Martinez Day but it almost looks like one compared to the puny hitting displayed by the two front-running teams.

Pittsburgh:  “L”, 4 – 3.  (.250, .282, .333;  8 ip, 3 er). We are still seeing light hitting here, but at least the Alleghenys got solid pitching in enough supply to cover the gaps left by the batters. David Price was the starting pitcher, the first in the EFL we’ve seen so far who did his job Thursday.

Canberra:  DNP, 2 – 3.  (.278, .381, .611;  8 ip, 6 er).  Ervin Santana did his job: 6 ip, 2 er.  Shane Greene, not so much: 1.3 ip, 1 er.   Michael Tonkin, not at all:  0.7 ip, 3 earned runs. However, the hitting was very nice, so the net damage was minimal.

Peshastin:  W, 15 – 4. (.632, .667, 1.368;  3 ip, 0 er)  Now, at last, we discover competence — even excellence — all around.   The Pears pummeled opposing pitchers with 4 homers.  But it was only in 21 plate appearances, a little too thin. The pitching was the same only thinner.

Flint Hill:  L, 3 – 5. (.130, .259, .391;  1.0 ip, 0 er) Back to lackluster hitting.  I wonder if these phenomena are causally related, or just random luck.

Kaline: DNP, 0 – 1.  (.222, .364, .278;  9.7 ip, 3 er).  Still not really good hitting, and with only 22 plate appearances the Drive are lucky they had the day off.

Cottage: DNP,  1 – (-4).  (.273, .333, .515;  7 ip, 0 er.)  At 36 plate appearances, the Cheese are the only EFL team to hit reasonably well over an entire game’s worth of plate appearances. Along with stellar pitching, the Cheese lacked only a game to play.

DC:  DNP, (-5) – (-9).  (.043, .154, .043;  16.3 ip, 4 er)  That (-9) runs allowed catches the eye.  When have I ever seen someone take such a big chunk of runs back?  Never, as far as I know.  Great pitching, most of which replaces replacements: that seems to be  the formula.  So on a day DC didn’t play, and the hitters scored minus 5 runs, the pitchers still helped the Balk leave the Twins a little further behind.